Have you ever seen the ways the police have affected our community? A majority of people have been affected by the police because they do not always respond quickly and people are not treated equally.

There has been many reports of police not responding quickly to people’s emergency calls. For example during an interview, with an Oakland resident, Fernando Sebastian, he stated an experience he had with the police. A quote from Fernando “ When I was 14 I was robbed and so I didn’t know what do so I called the police but they came 2 hours late when I called them” (Fernando). This quote from Fernando shows how he has been affected by the police. This also shows that younger people could also get affected by the police. This is could be a problem that younger people such as teenagers or kids could be endangered by the police too, especially here in Oakland where their usually a lot of crimes and shooting. During an interview with an Oakland resident, Joe sebastian, he stated a time his community had a problem with the police, a quote from Joel “ we called the police when a drunk driver spined out and hit a car there was cars pieces everywhere, this happened at 10 pm but the police came 3 hours after this had happened ” (joel). This quote shows how police not responding quickly could also affect our community.

There has been a large number of police not treating people equally. According to an article about police brutality protest in Oakland, people protest for the African Americans who were killed by police. A quote from an African American protester from the article “ All we’ve been trying to be since we got free was to be to be equal but were not” (abc7news.com). This quote shows how African Americans feel about the police, they feel angry because they are trying to be equal. They have been free since 1865, but they have been treated differently. It is clear that they had been treated differently because of the violent crime towards black people. People that I know very well has been treated differently by the police, like for an example during a interviewed with an Oakland resident, Lily Pablo, she stated a time that she and her family experienced a problem with the police. Lily and her family were pulled over by a police, the officer was rude to them saying mean things and not listening to them or what they had to say. A quote from my Lily “This made me feel like I couldn’t trust the police anymore because of how they treated me and my family”(Lily). This quote shows how Lily feels about the police. This could be difficult for our community because like Lily people might stop trusting the police, people might not want to call the police for help because they might not trust them anymore. This might affect the people by not knowing who to call for help when they are in danger or when their having a problem.

However some policemen may argue that it’s challenging for the Oakland police department to communicate with people who are in danger. According to an article about how the police affect the communities in Oakland it also talks about the police’s perspective of the problem. A quote from Lt. Henderson Jordan a former police officer “community members don’t understand that there are only 24 officers working from 6 in the morning until four in the afternoon”. This quote shows that there is a minimum of policemen working in the mornings and the afternoon. So this means that it is more harder for policemen to come to you when you need help or it’s an emergency, because there might be many other people with a problem or an emergency and there is so little amount of policemen for people to contact. To conclude, Oakland communities are not receiving the right amount of help by the Oakland police department.

Hi Christian,
I agree that police response time can affect the community as a whole. Also, the prolong response time can also cause people in the community to have lack of trust toward police and feel lack of safety in their own neighborhood in the time of need. I believe police officers should be fair to everyone, and not treat people differently based on their race or color. I really enjoy reading your post! Thank you!

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